Israel condemns France's decision to recognize Palestinian state

25/7/2025 6:10

Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Thursday night condemned French President Emmanuel Macron's decision to recognize a Palestinian state.

The French president wrote on the social media platform X earlier in the night that, "consistent with its historic commitment to a just and lasting peace in the Middle East, I have decided that France will recognize the State of Palestine."

Macron added that he will make this "solemn announcement" before the upcoming 80th session of the United Nations General Assembly

In a statement from his office, Netanyahu said, "Such a move rewards terror and risks creating another Iranian proxy, just as Gaza became."

"A Palestinian state in these conditions would be a launch pad to annihilate Israel, not to live in peace beside it," he said.

In a statement, Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Sa'ar said, "A Palestinian state will be a Hamas state, just as the withdrawal from the Gaza Strip twenty years ago led to Hamas taking control of it."

Macron's move follows his earlier declaration in April, saying that France would recognize the Palestinian state during an international conference on Palestine, co-chaired with Saudi Arabia in New York in June. But under pressure from the United States, the international conference has been postponed until the end of July.